Paul Elstone, University of Oregon: We have not delayed direct mail and planned asks, although have/are adding student crisis fund as a giving option 

Michael Reza, George Fox University: We are still using direct mail. However, the tone and asks are different. We have focused on student support exclusively. We have reduced the frequency, total number, and audience. We also are more targeted in our mailings, using predictive analytics, and only mailing to those that are close to us and those that are rated with more significant giving capacity that has a higher likelihood of giving. 

Michael, George Fox University: We will use social media, digital engagement through alumni relations, and email as the main strategy to engage new donors. We will not spend a lot of time on new prospects. We will focus our efforts on stewarding those that are already brought in to the mission and support us currently.  

Paul, University of Oregon: In place of in-person grad celebration for PathwayOregon students and donors (scholarship and advising programs for students from low-income families) we are developing plans for a virtual event to bring these groups together. Also thinking about how regional alumni can be involved with celebrations. 

Michael, George Fox University: We are currently focused on Emergency Fund and support for students that lost work-study jobs when we shut campus. We will move towards a scholarship focus and continue seeking support for an emergency fund and other wrap-around high-value student services. We are focused on helping drive student retention and recruitment efforts through our fundraising strategy through the summer at least. 

Paul, University of Oregon: We shut down our call center in March. We had already dramatically cut back the scope of our call center for FY20 before COVID and most call center activity this year was based on data clean up. We have worked hard to keep other student employees on the job working from home with various tasks. Some have reduced hours but are still employed. 

 

Michael, George Fox University: We shut down our call center. We were planning a significant scale-back of our student calling budget for the next fiscal year of about 25% and reallocating those resources to digital and mail. We have a handful of student callers working remotely for us now that do nothing but thank current donors for recent gifts. We want every donor, regardless of size of gift, to get a personal thank you call from a student or staff member going forward. We have seen great results in engaging donors through this effort. 

Paul, University of Oregon: Overall I have been very impressed with the productivity of our team. There is tremendous stress on staff with young children and those who are caregivers to older relatives. The University of Oregon activated two weeks of emergency sick leave for all employees to help with this. And we are encouraging all advancement staff to work flexible schedules that allow them to balance all responsibilities with less stress 

Michael, George Fox University: We have become more productive as a team. There is much more urgency in our work and our team has stepped up to do any task that benefits the university. We are also catching up on projects that we didn’t get to and initiating new efforts as well. We have to be flexible and understanding as well. So we don’t have normal work schedules as childcare needs are critical as well as personal mental health to just take a break from zoom meetings.  

Maureen Procopio, University of Oregon: The University of Oregon has had a crowdfunding program in place for a few years with a framework that focuses on aiding faculty and students to raise money for programs and initiatives.   

 

Michael, George Fox University: Crowdfunding is something that we have done for the last several years. Just not in large scale. We have about 10 crowdfunding projects a year with goals under $10K each to support numerous efforts in athletics, service learning trips, equipment, etc. Our GFU Gives campaign for the month of April is the first time we have done a campus wide crowdfunding effort to support Emergency Fund and Student Fund. We feel it has been very successful with more than 450 donors and $110K raised in 20 days so far.  

Paul, University of Oregon: [We] haven't seen too much of this yet. 

Michael, George Fox University: No decision yet.  

Maureen Procopio, University of Oregon: The University of Oregon’s Leadership Annual Giving Officers have had great success with securing Zoom/video meetings. They are engaging with new prospects and donors. 

 

Michael, George Fox University: Yes. Significant conversations with donors have significantly increased for us over the last month. Though the phone has been the most effective for us, we certainly have ramped up zoom meeting in place of face to face.